Tag Archives: tanja lainio

Female fronted groups are no longer something scarce in the Hard Rock and Metal world but with most of them falling to either the Gothic or Symphonic side it’s interesting to hear a band like Lullacry. The group focuses their music on high energy Hard Rock and after a couple of listens you will find them pretty good at what they do. You cannot compare them to Evanescence since their far more pumping in the songs and they are not depressing enough to be Gothic. The whole sound of the band comes across as something akin to that which Lita Ford or a heavier Vixen might perform during their heyday. “Perfect Tonight” and “Fire Within” are innocent sounding rockers that I feel might draw a lot of people in. Slower numbers like “Heart Shaped Scars” can be the song where folks either light their lighters or cell phones as they play and this works very well with some nice keyboard parts to it. Lead singer Tanja is beautiful which always helps a band in the visual sense and she seems to also be able to belt them out to a certain level of power across the record. Her high pitched chorus segments might sound a little repetitive at first listen but when run again you will find this is not the case. Other numbers of note are “Killing Time” which rocks hard as does “Zero”. “King Of Pain” is sadly not a cover of the Police classic but instead a slow and throbbing track (a song that might be an interesting thing to see a Metalized rendition of). I like the album but still have to find if there is a number as catchy as “Don’t Touch The Flame” from their last record. The lineup has not changed and finds Sauli, Tanja, Heavy, Sami and Jukka all still on point to aim their band higher and higher.Continue reading “Vol. 4” by Lullacry→

Coming at you with a healthy dose of Hard Rock hooks come Finland’s Lullacry. With their release of “Crucify My Heart” (courtesy of Century Media Records) you get some catchy tunes and solid rock and roll musicianship. I once saw the group labeled as Gothic and as I focused on the release I have to inform you that this is incorrect. Singer Tanja has a little more in common with Amy Lee than with Tarja Turunen or Liv Kristine and the music is clearly Hard Rock and not the Doom-laden atmospheric dreariness that is associated with the Gothic genre. I have to tell you that most of the record is straight ahead stuff with a decent amount of tracks that are easily remembered and enjoyed. In particular I favored the first 4 tracks as they just seemed to stick with me as I reviewed the CD. Tanja is also a very beautiful girl which helps sell the band just a little bit more in this day and age where all bands again need to be image conscious. The band itself is lined out with Sauli Kivilahti (guitar), Heavy (bass), Jukka Outinen (drums) and Sami Vauhkonen (lead guitar). Their playing is pretty much straightforward and shows tightness but no real experimentation musically on the release. The drums remain in 4/4 time and while there are some nice lead guitar solos around the course of the record there is not a lot of raving to do on them.Continue reading “Crucify My Heart” by Lullacry→

To say that the level of electricity was high for Nightwish’s return to New York City would be an understatement. The show had gone on sale several months ago when I first purchased my tickets and it sold out within the month. The timeframe was around February or so when I got my tickets for the show that was in August. Impressive to say the least, yet I guess with the band being from Finland this early sale is required to generate the proper interest to cover the costs it will incur. When Nightwish first visited, it was a one-night only appearance at Brooklyn’s famous L’Amour (now since closed). Now, they have returned on a full USA Tour with fellow Finnish rockers Lullacry.Continue reading Nightwish @ B.B. King Blues Club (8/22/2004)→